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Palgrave Macmillan

Idols of the Marketplace

Idolatry and Commodity Fetishism in English Literature, 1580–1680

  • Book
  • © 2001

Overview

Authors:
  1. David Hawkes
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Part of the book series: Early Modern Cultural Studies 1500–1700 (EMCSS)

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-1
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  2. Introduction

    • David Hawkes
    Pages 3-25

  3. Idolatry And Political Economy

    • David Hawkes
    Pages 27-47

  4. Commodity Fetishism And Theology

    • David Hawkes
    Pages 49-75

  5. Idolatry and Commodity Fetishism in The Antitheatrical Controversy

    • David Hawkes
    Pages 77-94

  6. Sodomy, Usury, and The Narrative of Shakespeare’S Sonnets

    • David Hawkes
    Pages 95-114

  7. Typology and Objectification in George Herbert’S The Temple

    • David Hawkes
    Pages 115-142

  8. Alchemical And Financial Value In The Poetry Of John Donne

    • David Hawkes
    Pages 143-167

  9. The Politics Of Character In Milton’S Divorce Tracts

    • David Hawkes
    Pages 169-190

  10. Thomas Traherne: A Critique Of Political Economy

    • David Hawkes
    Pages 191-211

  11. John Bunyan’S One-Dimensional Man

    • David Hawkes
    Pages 213-230

  12. Back Matter

    Pages 231-294
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Keywords

About this book

Postmodern society seems incapable of elaborating an ethical critique of the market economy. Early modern society showed no such reticence. Between 1580 and 1680, Aristotelian teleology was replaced as the dominant mode of philosophy in England by Baconian empiricism. This was a process with implications for every sphere of life: for politics and theology, economics and ethics, aesthetics and sexuality. Through nuanced and original readings of Shakespeare, Herbert, Donne, Milton, Traherne, and Bunyan, David Hawkes sheds light on the antitheatrical controversy, and early modern debates over idolatry and value and trade. Hawkes argues that the people of Renaissance England believed that the decline of telos resulted in a reified, fetishistic mode of consciousness which manifests itself in such phenomena as religious idolatry, commodity fetish, and carnal sensuality. He suggests that the resulting early modern critique of the market economy has much to offer postmodern society.

Reviews

'Idols of the Marketplace constitutes an original and fully historicized analysis of six important early modern writers, along with.. the early Christian and early modern debate over idolatry, the early modern debates over value and trade, and the antitheatrical controversy. The boldness lies in its willingness to entertain and examine the idea that early modern defences of intrinsic value and teleology may in fact contain a politically and ethically useful theory of society...Professor Hawkes's prose is clear and accessible without being reductive'. - From reader's report by James Holstrum

'Idols of the Market Place is an excellent book - provocative, coherent and full of insight.' - Times Literary Supplement

'...provocative and fascinating readings of early modern texts by a knowledgeable and astute author.' - Laura Lunger Knoppers, Albion

About the author

DAVID HAWKES is Associate Professor of English at Lehigh University. He is the author of Ideology.

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